Chinese struggle to stay wired amid cold snap

Jan. 10, 2013
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A Chinese man tries out an iPad at a newly opened Apple Store in Wangfujing shopping district in Beijing in October. / Andy Wong, AP

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

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BEIJING â?? China's coldest winter in almost three decades, including record low temperatures, freezing rain and snow, has left nearly 400,000 people in a "state of disaster" in southwest Guizhou province alone.

Workers there used bamboo sticks Thursday to beat ice off frozen power lines, reported state news agency Xinhua.

But for some Chinese, especially the urban residents of south China, who are denied the state-supplied heating networks of north China, the fierce cold snap poses a new, albeit much less serious problem: how to charge their iPads and iPhones.

Extreme weather has sent temperatures in China diving to a national average of 25 degrees Fahrenheit since Nov. 20, the lowest level for 28 years, according to the China Meteorological Administration.

In south China, that translates into genuine discomfort and has reignited a decades-old debate about the lack of heating. A line drawn in the 1950s split China into a northern half that installed and still enjoys heavily subsidized public heating, and a southern half that shivers through winter without a public heating network and must make do with private, often less effective heating devices.

This month, southerners have again expressed their displeasure at what they view as an unfair and arbitrary divide, and now they have new evidence to offer: Apple products that dislike cold weather.

On China's booming social media networks, south Chinese consumers are busy sharing their frustrations at the extremely long time it takes to charge iPads and other Apple products at low room temperatures.

The many novel, and apparently successful, charging methods that Chinese users have documented with recent online pictures include: stuffing their iPads into sheets, blankets and duvets; smothering them in hot water bags and bottles; clutching them to beating human chests; sticking on heating pads; blasting them with hairdryers and electric fans.

This very minor issue reveals the soaring economic power of Chinese consumers, as many of these iPad owners grew up in homes without even a telephone land line. It also highlights the way they employ China's heavily censored but still serviceable social media to complain about social issues.

"How can failure to charge be normal!" shouted Peng Bin on Thursday on the massively popular Sina Weibo micro-blogging service.

His daughter had bought an iPad recently, but Peng refused to accept the explanations of Apple employees in the southern Chinese city of Nanchang that cold weather meant long charging times.

A fast seller this week has been touchscreen gloves, whose conductive fingertips allow users to access all their digital devices. In Jiujiang city in southern Jiangxi province, the China News Service reported strong sales of touchscreen gloves, selling for under $2 per pair last week, among young users of smartphone and iPads.

"In the winter I can wear gloves to play with my iPad and cellphone, and they only cost $1.80, it's really good," said a female shopper who gave her name as Sun, the news agency reported.